Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

In the desert Ed had yet to name, in its city long since dead, Ed patrolled the empty streets with an inquisitive glance. The darkness of the night did not help hide any secrets.

That was because the ordinary houses of the city likely held no secrets. What they did do however was informing Ed about how exactly the elves used to live, and from what Ed managed to decipher thus far...

They lived comfortably. For example, the water channels that ran across the entire city were not for show. With a combination of arrays and just ingenuity, water was supplied to every house and could be acquired through faucets.

'It's always fascinating…' Across the world, multiple different people would come up with a similar solution to an identical problem using different means. The elves' faucet functioned very similarly to how faucets did in Ed's previous life.

There were some differences, the most obvious being that the elves' technology relied mainly on magic, but the idea and execution was similar enough for one to suspect some form of inspiration was taken from either side.

Of course, Ed knew that if there was any inspiration it could only come from the dungeon or system. Since Ed didn't know how either of these entities worked he couldn't say for certain that it was the case but it also wouldn't be unlikely.

If Ed understood things correctly in the orc floor, many orc ancestors received knowledge from the dungeon. Orcs like Sarfu, the shaman behind the sacred tribe, had some sort of communion with the dungeon from which they could gain power and knowledge.

Overall, the elves may have come up with these technologies after hundreds of years, or they could have received them from the dungeon since their inception.

No matter what the reality of the faucets was, Ed continued to walk and comb around. But despite his best efforts, given the current state of the city, the only thing he learned was a lesson...

Time might heal all wounds, but time also leaves no witness.

That was to say time was impartial, all things were judged equally before time. Just like how time might remove painful emotions, it could and would eventually remove all traces of living existence.

Letters would fade and buildings would weather, everything would ruin and return to its most primitive form.

'If time wasn't so heartless I wouldn't have to piece together history' Ed thought lamentably.

The dilapidated library was still a painful memory. Since Ed was still mulling on it, time was not just ruthless, it was also a slow healer! F*ck time!

Before Ed could focus back on his journey, after taking an umm mental detour, Ed received a slew of transmissions from W informing him of what he was going through.

'Elves? No... Alive arid elves?' Ed could hardly believe it! How was it possible for the elves to live for this long without any water?

'Or are there other water sources?' Ed thought with gleaming eyes. 

Indeed, it was very bizarre for the floor's entire water supply to rely on the marsh's lake. From another perspective however, it did fit the dungeon's cheapskate personality Ed presumed it held.

So what was the truth?

Ed looked back over the many hints he gathered from this night alone.

'Magical faucets, elven toilets…' All the comforts he witnessed coalesced to reveal the answer.

'Magic! It has to be magic!' Ed actually didn't know how an elven toilet helped with this answer but surely the answer was magic, no?

In his previous life, elves were often described as living in nature. That often came with the ability to communicate with plants or animals. In some fictions elves could even take the form of animals. This was often called druidism and wasn't necessarily exclusive to elves.

Regardless, Ed was not in those fictions, or he didn't think he was. The laws of his current world were such that the elements of water and earth could come into union to form the plant element.

'So elves more likely than not have or had water affinity' Having earth and water affinity would mean being able to control plants and as long Ed's past knowledge wasn't complete useless that would have to be the key to the arid elves' survival.

'But… how do they keep on gathering the required mana?' In an arid desert, there had to be little to no water elements.

'No wait…' That was actually a silly question. Going back to basics, the elements existed in abundance in their natural environments but why was that the case?

The answer was element-less mana. This meant normal mana would become elemental mana depending on the environment. As long as the water attuned elves had a puddle they could continue to make more and more puddles!

While Ed wasn't sure of the specifics behind this transformation...  I.E. time it took, abundance of the element required, etc... This was the most likely answer to the arid elves' continued existence.

Still, this explanation didn't answer all the questions.

'Why are they hiding?' Why would the elves hide underground? Why would they allow the plants and wildlife to die out if they had the ability to create more water?!

'Something else is wrong…' The hints all pointed towards some other sort of catastrophe. Like maybe monsters or something similar that attacked the native elves into hiding.

'In this scenario…' The trashed library wouldn't necessarily be a sign of elves needing warmth but rather a sign of elves desperately fleeing. It all made sense!

'That's why the most important pages of the book seem to be missing!' Taking the entire library was an impossible task but compiling the most important pages saved a lot of space.

'As for burning the books…' Maybe warmth did play a part, but it was also possible that they didn't want the books to fall into enemy hands.

Ed was satisfied with this explanation but he still felt a bit confused.

'If they had the means to grow Azalia why leaver her here?' Why would they treat their divine tree so poorly? Shouldn't they be willing to lay down their lives for it? Were it not for the insanely tenacious vitality of Azalia she would not have lived to see the current day.

But that wasn't to say Ed was blaming or chastising the elves. It made sense to leave a giant tree behind, and it also made sense to not lay down your life for a tree. Ed's judgment that their behavior was unusual only came from the prejudice formed by his past life.

So he let the topic go. After figuring all of this out, all Ed did was return to Azalia's chamber.

He took in the mystical atmosphere of the budding leaves on the decadent tree and then glanced at his purpose for being there. The blood fruit seed he planted in a corner of the room was no longer a seedling, it was now a sapling.

'For a couple of hours that's plenty satisfactory' The real question was whether after going through such rapid advancement the tree would die if the array was shut down. That was after all the flaw of growing trees with arrays.

'The tree dying is a pretty steep price for non-me entities' Having to spend mana crystals to grow an entire plantation would bankrupt most human societies. The sum of the cost for a mere couple of weeks would be astronomical.

Ed could guarantee this was the case since W did get the chance to learn some things while outside. The humans' pitiful combat level was only low due to their lacking resources. If they could create mana crystals out of thin air like Ed's skeleton body things would be different.

'Since they would be able to bear the cost to grow things rapidly…' Starvation would be mostly resolved at least in the more benevolent kingdoms. It was very likely that some humans would try to find fault with such magic technology for the sake of their own interest.

With a major problem like starvation being resolved, funds could be funneled into other important matters. These matters could range from education, to the military but no matter where they were spent human power would rise.

'Looks like I might be able to use this array to help the adventurer girl' If she used this technology to form an organization her political power would skyrocket. That was because the array was made using the elves' special ink.

'Only I can source that ink' The humans might be able to create copies that function the same but they would never reach the standard of Ed's array. The arrays would either be much larger or work far more slowly.

That was to say Ed could use the girl to form a monopoly.

'The only problem would be how to supply her with the ink' The only reliable way in Ed's eyes was to have the humans enter the orc plains.

'I can then get the Sanctuary orcs to deliver it to the girl or some trusted aids' This plan had some wrinkles. Well, many wrinkles but they could all be ironed out as time passed.

'Man I am so altruistic' Ed thought to himself while shrugging helplessly. His kind heart couldn't be helped!

But actually, Ed was getting ahead of himself. He first needed to verify the array worked as advertised.